WCP5328

Letter (WCP5328.5872)

[1]

Sunday1 [15 May 1864]2

My dear Hooker.

We hear that you have returned & that they3 at Barlaston enjoyed your visit & that you begrimed yourself to your heart's content with old dirty casts4. I am to that degree presumptuous that instead of amusing myself by scribbling to you, I most days write a few paragraphs or sentences at my Lythrum paper5, which I hope to send to Linn[ean]. Soc[iety]. this session — Everything comes out very clearly. — As you are working, you poor wretch, at Melastomas, I suppose you will soon come to Lythraceae; [2] in looking at species with large flowers, remember different lengths of pistils & stamens & if possible let me see. The Lagerstroemia has flowered with me & by analogy is mid-styled & sh[oul]d have 2 other forms. —

I was very glad to get your last note with good news about Bates'6 place7; but I fear it will send his Nat[ural]. Hist[ory]. papers. By the way what a capital paper that was by Wallace8.

Your suggestion about Mr. Bennett9 [3] & Leersia has fructified & I shall get plants when they are up. —

Thanks for the letter10 from N. America forwarded to me . —

Your penultimate letter11 told me much about yourself, which I wished much to hear. —

I have now been more than a month without sickness, but I do not at all rapidly grow strong, & have to go to bed 2 or 3 times per day. — But it makes a wonderful difference in my life, that I can now occupy myself a little with [4] old pursuits & read a little.

Farewell my dear old friend | C. Darwin [signature]

1
An annotation after "Sunday" reads "May 15/64."
2
The date [15 May 1864] has been established by The Darwin Correspondence Project < https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-4496.xml> [accessed 9 August 2020].
3
Wedgwood, Francis ("Frank") (1800-1888) British master potter; brother of Emma Darwin and his family.
4
Referring to pottery moulds. See WCP5296_L5840, Hooker to Darwin, 14 May [18]64.
5
Darwin, C. 1864. On the sexual relations of the three forms of Lythrum salicaria. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (Botany), 8(31): pp. 169-196.
6
Bates, Henry Walter (1825-1892). British naturalist, explorer and close friend of ARW.
7
H. W. Bates became the assistant secretary of the Royal Geographical Society in 1864. See Crawforth, A. 2009. The Butterfly Hunter: The Life of Henry Walter Bates. Buckingham. Buckingham: The University of Buckingham Press.
8
Wallace, A. R. 1864. The origin of human races and the antiquity of man deduced from the Theory of "Natural Selection". Journal of the Anthropological Society of London, 2: pp. clviii-clxx. [a paper read at the ASL meeting of 1 March 1864].
9
William Bennett (1804-1873). Tea-dealer and botanist. Father of Edward Trusted Bennett (1831–1908) and Alfred William Bennett (1833–1902). According to the Darwin Correspondence Project. <https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-4496.xml> [accessed 9 August 2020].
10
Not identified by the Darwin Correspondence Project.
11
Hooker to Darwin, [26 or 27 April 1864], Darwin Correspondence Project <https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-4472.xml> [accessed 9 August 2020].

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP5328.5872)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Darwin Correspondence Project [2015-04-29] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-04-29] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10] Transcription checked by Costa, Leslie [2020-10-08]

Please cite as “WCP5328,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP5328